Fiona Martin (Reid, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer please outline how the Morrison government's economic recovery plan is lowering taxes and providing jobs to help families through the challenges of COVID-19, particularly in my electorate of Reid?

Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Reid for her question and acknowledge her prior professional experience as a psychologist working with children with autism and making a substantial contribution to our community in that regard.

The member for Reid, like all members on this side of the House, understands that the budget was about one thing: creating more jobs across the Australian economy. In fact, it was about creating nearly one million new jobs in the coming years. We saw in the response to the budget that consumer sentiment increased by 11.9 per cent. We saw consumer confidence increase for six consecutive weeks. The economic recovery across the economy is underway, but there is still a long way to go.

In this budget, which was all about creating jobs, we were doing so by tax cuts. We're doing this by: bringing forward by two years the stage 2 tax cuts, supporting more than 11½ million Australian workers; providing two additional $250 payments to pensioners, carers, veterans and others on income support; backing business, recognising that eight out of every 10 jobs across the economy are in the private sector, by providing an expanded instant asset write-off, which allows business to write off machinery and equipment all in year one, and by a loss carry back measure, which will be important for previously profitable businesses that became lossmaking during COVID. We are also bringing forward infrastructure projects, cutting red tape and investing in research and development.

While I was in the electorate of Reid the other week, I had the opportunity to visit a local business—a business that is well known to Sydneysiders—Pasticceria Papa in Five Dock. They have an amazing story. Salvatore came to this country and set up a business with just one staff member. Today he is employing more than 170 staff. When COVID hit he saw his revenue and his turnover fall substantially, and he relied on JobKeeper to keep those staff employed. Now that the virus has been suppressed, people are coming back through the door and those jobs are back so he no longer needs JobKeeper. This is the success story across Australia, as we've built the bridge to the other side of this crisis. I can testify to that baked ricotta cheesecake, like so many other Australians, but it's really what Salvatore is doing for so many of his workers and so many other businesses across Australia. JobKeeper has helped them get to the other side so that we can rebuild our economy and secure Australia's economic future.